I am in receipt of a phone call today from a gentleman from Missouri, calling me claiming that he was told by an eBay dealer that the "vintage Listerine bottle from The Waltons" that he purchased was sold by the Original Prop Blog to the eBay dealer. A simple search brought up such a listing on eBay - VINTAGE LISTERINE BOTTLE FROM TV'S THE WALTONS+ - sold five days ago by eBay … [Read more...]

Last month, there were a number of mainstream media outlets reporting on a lawsuit filed against Heritage Auction Galleries by a former employee who charges, among other things, that the auction house utilizes a fictitious bidder - "N.P. Gresham" - to participate in bidding in its own auction events. … [Read more...]

In April, the "Planet of the Apes" Statue of Liberty prop that has long been the focus of an ongoing investigation by the Original Prop Blog was determined to have in fact been made for and used in the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks - not the 1968 science fiction classic Planet of the Apes. … [Read more...]

As was the case last year (see 2007 Year in Review), what follows is an editorial review of my personal views with regards to the hobby, looking back at the top trends and news stories of 2008. As always, there were a lot of interesting developments and events, and quite a bit to review and consider. … [Read more...]

There are several companies on eBay that sell notable quantities of props and memorabilia attributed to use in classic and vintage film and television productions, as well as items characterized as personal property of Hollywood stars and notable famous figures from history. The purpose of this article is to identify these companies and include information about their public … [Read more...]

In performing research for my continuing series of past public auction house events, archiving and sharing information about Superman costumes offered for sale historically (of costumes attributed to use by Christopher Reeve in the Superman films of the 70s and 80s), I noticed a change on one of the "Auction Archives" listings on the Heritage Auction Galleries website. … [Read more...]

Michael Siewert of JudyGarland.com was kind enough to share some thoughts about his experience with Heritage Auction Galleries and other auction houses, and I felt his comments were worth highlighting by reposting them from the Reader Comments in the recent Heritage-related articles. I do not know Mr. Siewert, but thought we could open a discussion about some of the ideas and … [Read more...]